Bar officials concluded Mildner, 51, who was admitted to the Florida Bar in 1986, "engaged in a conflict of interest situation" by accepting a $50,000 investment from a longtime client without providing the required disclosures. Specifically, Mildner failed to disclose he had an interest in the company that was to receive the loan. He further violated Bar rules by depositing the funds into a personal account without telling his client, according to a Bar complaint.

Within one month of receiving the money, the Bar found, Mildner "spent the entire amount paying his own personal and business obligations."

According to the Bar investigation, Mildner eventually repaid the $50,000 after his client hired another attorney to litigate the matter.

Mildner, who had no prior record of discipline, also was ordered to pay $5,682 in investigation costs.

In another Aug. 22 order, the Florida Supreme Court suspended Vero Beach civil attorney Sherman Smith III "until further order," after being found in contempt of court.

According to court records, Smith, who was admitted to the Bar in 1971, failed to respond to an official Bar inquiry or produce records sought via a subpoena.

The high court ordered Smith suspended from the practice of law until he responds in writing to the Bar inquiry.

Court papers don't reveal the nature of the Bar inquiry, but the subpoena ordered Smith to produce by last January the files of a client, specifically financial records related to the client's trust, estate and operating accounts dating to 2005.

Vero Beach attorney Stephen Fromang, 61, was ordered to be publicly reprimanded by the Florida Supreme Court for failure to provide effective counsel to a client facing criminal charges that resulted in a reversal of the conviction.

According to an Aug. 22 order, the discipline related to Fromang's representation at trial of a man arrested on charges of sexual battery on a child younger than 12 and lewd or lascivious molestation of a child between the ages of 12 and 16. Bar officials found Fromang, who was admitted to the Bar in 1976, violated rules that call for lawyers to provide "competent representation" to a client.

He was accused in part of not properly preparing to defend his client against two felony charges eventually dismissed by the state.

In a court order, the 4th District Court of Appeal found that Fromang's performance was "so clearly deficient that it affected the outcome of the trial."

The Florida Supreme Court ordered Fromang's public reprimand to be published in the Southern Reporter. He also was ordered to attend the Bar's ethics school, complete 30 hours of education courses in criminal law, and pay $2,401 in costs.

This is Fromang's second reprimand.

In 2007, he received a two-year probation term for being held in criminal contempt of court after he failed to appear for a client's sentencing hearing, Bar records show, despite having been warned by the court that it would not tolerate his "habitual failure" to attend hearings or late appearance.